AJC Diplomatic Mission Visits Argentina, Meets President Fernandez de Kirchner
March 13, 2011 – Buenos Aires – An AJC leadership delegation has concluded a three-day visit to Argentina.
The 18-member group, led by AJC Executive Director David Harris and coordinated by Dina Siegel Vann, Director of AJC's Latino and Latin American Institute, had meetings with top-level Argentine officials, including President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner.
The 90-meeting with the President was the second such get-together in a matter of months. In October 2010, an AJC group also met with the President when in Buenos Aires to accept the Bicentennial Award of the AMIA, the umbrella body for Argentine Jewry. Officials from the AMIA, an AJC partner organization, as well as Argentine Foreign Minister Hector Timerman, were present on both occasions.
Thursday's meeting with President Fernandez de Kirchner focused on the currently tense bilateral relationship between Argentina and the United States, Iran's ambitions in Latin America, and an assessment of the state of the Israeli-Palestinian peace process.
The President addressed AJC's Annual Meeting in Washington in 2007, and her late husband, then-President Nestor Kirchner, spoke at the 2004 AJC Annual Meeting.
Argentina was the target of two terrorist attacks carried out against the Israeli Embassy in Buenos Aires in 1992 and the AMIA building in 1994. The combined death toll was 114, with hundreds more wounded. Iran and Hezbollah were directly involved. Argentina has implicated several Iranian officials, including the current defense minister, in the 1994 attack, but, despite "red notices" issued by Interpol and persistent Argentine efforts, no arrests have yet been made.
The AJC delegation met on Friday with family members and friends of the 1994 AMIA victims, who credited AJC with consistently pressing the international community for justice to be served. The group also met with Alberto Nisman, the Special Prosecutor in the AMIA case.
An AJC delegation arrived in Buenos Aires within hours of the 1994 blast to express solidarity with the Jewish community and has remained deeply involved in the case over the past 17 years.
Since first establishing a presence in Buenos Aires over 50 years ago, AJC has made Latin America -- and Argentina in particular -- a top programmatic priority.
"Argentina is not only home to one of the world's largest and most vibrant Jewish communities, but also it is a country of critical importance to the U.S. and Israel. Today, it is a member of the G-20 and head of the Group of 77, as well as a founding member of Mercosur and a member of the UN Human Rights Council," said AJC Executive Director David Harris. "This is why we attach so much importance to our relationship with Argentina and return here year after year.”
The trip to Argentina also included meetings with Minister of Commerce and Public Finances Amado Boudou and the American and Israeli ambassadors.
AJC's Latino and Latin American Institute, founded in 2004, fosters closer ties among the U.S., Latin America, Israel, Jews and Latinos in the United States.
The 18-member group, led by AJC Executive Director David Harris and coordinated by Dina Siegel Vann, Director of AJC's Latino and Latin American Institute, had meetings with top-level Argentine officials, including President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner.
The 90-meeting with the President was the second such get-together in a matter of months. In October 2010, an AJC group also met with the President when in Buenos Aires to accept the Bicentennial Award of the AMIA, the umbrella body for Argentine Jewry. Officials from the AMIA, an AJC partner organization, as well as Argentine Foreign Minister Hector Timerman, were present on both occasions.
Thursday's meeting with President Fernandez de Kirchner focused on the currently tense bilateral relationship between Argentina and the United States, Iran's ambitions in Latin America, and an assessment of the state of the Israeli-Palestinian peace process.
The President addressed AJC's Annual Meeting in Washington in 2007, and her late husband, then-President Nestor Kirchner, spoke at the 2004 AJC Annual Meeting.
Argentina was the target of two terrorist attacks carried out against the Israeli Embassy in Buenos Aires in 1992 and the AMIA building in 1994. The combined death toll was 114, with hundreds more wounded. Iran and Hezbollah were directly involved. Argentina has implicated several Iranian officials, including the current defense minister, in the 1994 attack, but, despite "red notices" issued by Interpol and persistent Argentine efforts, no arrests have yet been made.
The AJC delegation met on Friday with family members and friends of the 1994 AMIA victims, who credited AJC with consistently pressing the international community for justice to be served. The group also met with Alberto Nisman, the Special Prosecutor in the AMIA case.
An AJC delegation arrived in Buenos Aires within hours of the 1994 blast to express solidarity with the Jewish community and has remained deeply involved in the case over the past 17 years.
Since first establishing a presence in Buenos Aires over 50 years ago, AJC has made Latin America -- and Argentina in particular -- a top programmatic priority.
"Argentina is not only home to one of the world's largest and most vibrant Jewish communities, but also it is a country of critical importance to the U.S. and Israel. Today, it is a member of the G-20 and head of the Group of 77, as well as a founding member of Mercosur and a member of the UN Human Rights Council," said AJC Executive Director David Harris. "This is why we attach so much importance to our relationship with Argentina and return here year after year.”
The trip to Argentina also included meetings with Minister of Commerce and Public Finances Amado Boudou and the American and Israeli ambassadors.
AJC's Latino and Latin American Institute, founded in 2004, fosters closer ties among the U.S., Latin America, Israel, Jews and Latinos in the United States.
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